Organic electroluminescent elements (which may hereinafter also be referred to as “elements” or “organic EL elements”) are light emitting elements which have organic layers between a pair of electrodes, and utilize, for light emitting, energy of the exciton generated as a result of recombination of electrons injected from a cathode and holes injected from an anode in the organic layer. Since the organic electroluminescent elements are capable of high-luminance light emitting at a low voltage, have a high response speed, and are relatively thin and light-weight, it is expected that the element can be employed in a wide range of applications, and the elements have been actively researched and developed.
As a material for an organic layer of an organic electroluminescent element, there have been known several compounds in a structure having an aromatic fused hydrocarbon ring having 10 to 30 carbon atoms, an aromatic fused heterocycle having 8 to 30 carbon atoms, or the like as a core skeleton, in which an aromatic group is used as a substituent, and the aromatic group and the core are linked via a linking group to form a non-aromatic fused ring structure.
For example, PTL 1 describes that a material in which a ring is formed with a single bond and a methylene chain with respect to a fused ring structure such as pyrene can be used as a light emitting material, a host material, or the like of an organic electroluminescent element. This literature exemplifies several compounds in which aryl pyrene is fused with a pyrene skeleton via a methylene chain, but describes only an aspect in which 1 or 2 fused rings are formed with the pyrene skeleton and the aryl substituent per pyrene skeleton.
PTL 2 describes that a compound having an aromatic fused hydrocarbon ring having 5 to 60 carbon atoms or an aromatic fused heterocycle having 2 to 60 carbon atoms as a core, in which there are 1 or 2 phenyl groups per core skeleton, can be used as a light emitting material for an organic electroluminescent element.